Michael Kenny

Professor Michael Kenny is Professor of Public Policy in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge. He convenes and teaches on the MPhil in Public Policy, and is the Director of the Cambridge Insitute of Public Policy, also based at POLIS. He was previously Professor of Politics in the School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary, University of London, and the inaugural Director of the Mile End Institute.

He is currently a co-director of the British Academy’s “Governing England” programme as well as Visiting Fellow at UCL’s Constitution Unit and sits on the Leverhulme Trust’s Advisory Committee.

His research interests are primarily in the fields of modern political thought, political ideologies and the role of ideas in public policy. He has also published work on the position of intellectuals in Britain; the history of political science in Anglo-America; the politics of nationhood in the UK; political reform; and the use of the ideas of civil society in international politics. His recent book, The Politics of Nationhood in England:(Oxford University Press, 2014); won the Political Studies Association’s ‘McKenzie’ prize for best book in political studies.

He has a BA from Cambridge, and an MA and PhD from the University of Manchester. Michael has also held positions at Queen’s University, Belfast; and the University of Sheffield, where he was Head of Politics.